The Heirs of Gilbert

Pages

Sunday, 24 September 2017

A drake Wigeon on the Manor Pond today was the first I’ve
seen this year and pushed the year list up to a measly 101 species. I am really
missing the wader habitat of last year!

Yesterday the Manor Garden was alive with Blackbirds with at
least two dozen around the lake. They were very jumpy and active so I assume
they were fresh arrivals (from the continent?). They also spotted a Tawny Owl
in a weeping willow on the island and eventually drove it out, sending it
flying low across the water. They had all gone by today.

Other sightings included Woodcock over the Magic Garden,
Little Egret, 200 Goldfinches and two Grey Wagtails by the river and a flock of
45 Meadow Pipits in the Bottom Fields. I also spotted this Stoat running along
the railway…

Earlier in the week I went bat detecting with our neighbour
Jim and friends of his, Phil & Lynda, from the Nottinghamshire Bat Group. Phil
had a very sophisticated bat detector which recorded the calls. They were then
put through a piece of software which turned them into sonograms. Not great
pics but they were on my phone (and in the pub!)…

This one shows the ‘hockey stick’ shape of pipistrelle bats
(in this case Common Pipistrelle)

Another pip but this time at a higher frequency (between 50
& 60khz) - this is a Soprano Pipistrelle.

This one shows some species of myotis bat (possibly
Natterer’s) with a second species, Noctule, shown in the short straight
sequence at 20khz. We also recorded another myotis bat but this time near the
water so presumably Daubenton’s bat.

and this one shows pip
again but the effect of different habitats. The flatter, deeper (and therefore
further carrying) calls are when the bat is in the open and the higher pitched
are when it was hunting around the tree canopy (this was recorded at the top of
Greenhills Lane).

Sunday, 10 September 2017

I’ll start with this magnificent beast, a Convolvulus
Hawkmoth. Unfortunately not in the parish but close by in Scruton found in a friend’s
garden…

It has still been fairly quiet on the bird front. A very
late Swift was still over the Magic Garden on Friday (8th)...

...and three Green Sandpipers were on the river. A Jay was in
the Magic Garden yesterday, the first I’ve seen in the village since
April. I wonder where they go in summer?
Today over 100 hirundines were feeding over Warlaby Lane, most were Swallows,
flying almost at head height, along with a few Sand Martins. Above this were 20
odd House Martins.

In terms of migration Blackcaps seemed to be ‘tacking’ from
nearly every bush yesterday but didn’t see, or hear, a single one today.
Instead there seemed to have been a strong arrival of Goldcrests overnight. Buzzards
were also on the move with up to ten seen over the village yesterday, including
a tight ‘kettle’ of seven birds. This one attracted the attention of the local
corvids...

They followed it up until they were all almost invisible to the
naked eye.

John, my resident moth expert, did a search for leaf mines
in the Magic Garden yesterday and added a remarkable 13 species of moth to the
parish list. This included Phyllonorycter esperella, the first record for North-West
Yorkshire (Vice-county 65).

He also came across a number of galls including this
striking Oak Artichoke Gall, caused by a tiny wasp Andricus
foecundatrix...

Monday, 28 August 2017

A few signs of birds on the move this weekend – warblers passing through our garden…

And the first Meadow Pipits re-appearing in the parish…

In the Magic Garden there were at least half a dozen
Blackcaps today with none seen yesterday…

A feature of recent days has been an evening movement of
Curlews over the village with 60 odd birds moving north-east (to Teesside to
roost?) . We found the flock today in the sheep pasture on Langlands…

Nearby there was a flock of 120 Lapwing and around 2000
Starlings feeding in a freshly turned field

Along the river yesterday there was a single Green
Sandpiper…

A Little Egret…

And at least four Kingfishers…

(One day I will get a good shot of this species!)

Other sightings in recent days have included a Hobby over
the village, four Swifts still present and evening gatherings of hirundines above the Magic Garden including over 50 Sand Martins.

I’ll finish with this striking fungi photographed on Langlands Farm…

...according to Mal, the very knowledgeable mid-Yorkshire fungi
recorder, this is Ganoderma resinaceum or the Laquered Bracket. Looking this up it seems to be a very rare species
this far north.

Sunday, 20 August 2017

Bird-wise it’s been very quiet. A Kingfisher has taken up its
usual late summer residence on the Magic Garden lake. A Swift was over the
village yesterday (along with three Buzzards) and around 50 Swallows were
feeding low over the village green.

On the insect front the pick of the sightings was this Small
Copper butterfly in the Magic Garden. This is the first I’ve seen in the
village for many years…

Also there today, along with the usual whites, were half a
dozen Speckled Woods…

Sunday, 13 August 2017

We’ve just come back from a fortnight in Shetland, almost thirty
years since our first visit (our honeymoon!). We were blessed with amazing weather…

It even got mentioned on Radio 4 that we had more sunshine
than Cornwall!

This wasn’t conducive to great birding (the only migrants I
found were four Crossbills, a couple of Swifts, Chiffchaff and Grey Wagtail)
but really showed these beautiful islands at their best…

And even their commonest birds are interesting…

And one of my favourites, the Shetland race of Wren…

Chunkier and with quite a distinct song.

Mammals included both Common and Grey seals (the latter
almost climbing into the replica Viking ship we were sailing in!) pods of Risso’s
and White-sided dolphins and this little cracker ‘nesting’ in the cliffs at
Eshaness…

Unfortunately the list didn’t include Orcas with several sightings
whilst we were there but we were always just a little too late…

Wednesday, 19 July 2017

Perfect conditions on Saturday night meant it was a
record-breaking moth catch in the Magic Garden. We caught a total of 876 moths
of 115 species (plus six still to be identified/confirmed with the county
recorder). This included 14 new species for the parish including this rather worn
Blackneck…

Pebble Hook-tip…

Iron Prominent…

Southern Wainscot (a good record for this area and reflection of placing a trap near the reed bed)…

It’s not been a bad few days for birds either. Chris Knight
rang me to say he was listening to a Quail by The New Inn. I dashed round to
hear at least one calling from a cornfield by the road.

John and Ann from Langlands then rang to say they had seen a
Red Kite on the farm. I dashed down but no sign (although there were seven
Curlew and three Oystercatcher here).

Then a couple of days later a villager said he had seen what
he thought was a kite near the solar farm. Another fruitless search but as I
was looking I got a call from a couple of friends who were watching it circling
over Thrintoft! To rub it in even further my wife and son spotted the bird down
Back Lane and had excellent views of it circling low over the fields here yesterday.

My only compensation was in looking for the kite I stumbled
across a Hobby hunting in the fields to the east of the church. It gave
excellent views, at one point even turning over on to its back as it stooped
after a Swallow.

I’ve had to go in for an emergency operation for a torn
retina this week so not sure how long until I can use binoculars/camera again so
might be a gap to my next blog.

Thursday, 13 July 2017

The only ‘guaranteed’ bird I hadn’t seen this year was
Spotted Flycatcher so when Jim and Sue rang to say they had one in their garden
I shot round. There was no sign but after a slightly nervous wait it reappeared…

It was later seen singing in a tree in the rectory garden. This is my 100th species of the year – well behind
last year (mainly reflecting the drying up/draining of the remaining wader
habitat in the parish).

On Tuesday evening the Magic Garden was alive with
Willow/Chiffs and I counted at least 20 very actively feeding in the trees
around the lake. I presume these were migrants passing through and yesterday
evening I only found a single bird.

More surprisingly I had a singing Reed Warbler. Was this a
bird singing on passage or the one from earlier in the year?

Talking of warblers we have now received details of the
French-ringed Blackcap trapped in the Garden in May. It was caught in October 2016 in Villeton, a small community in south-west France down
towards the Pyrenees.

Insects continue to fascinate/frustrate but here’s a couple
of identifiable hoverflies. Great Pied or Pellucid…

Sunday, 9 July 2017

It’s inevitable when you are known as 'the birdman' that you
get calls at this time of year. Last night it was a friend in the village
ringing about a young Swift that had fallen down their drainpipe. I’ve never
seen Swift in the hand before…

We tried relaunching it a couple of times but it wasn’t
quite developed enough to take flight so we ended up fetching a ladder
from the church and heroically Tracey, who has no head for heights, slipped it
back in to the nest…

Then last week there was an envelope slipped through the
door containing this…

This Treecreeper had flown into a neighbour’s window. It’s
doubly unfortunate because they are so scarce in the parish these days
(although I did see one in the Magic Garden today and another prospecting the lime
trees on the village green).

The week before that it was the guitar group knocking to say
one of the young Swallows had fallen out of its nest in the church porch. I
only had a pair of step ladders but thanks to a particularly tall member of the
group we were able to put this back too and it has now happily fledged.

There seems to be the first early signs of birds on the move
this week. I added Hobby to the year list and a Yellow Wagtail and a small
group of Curlew flew high over the Magic Garden. Four Oystercatcher flew over
the house and I had a brief glimpse of a chat down Back Lane today, most likely
a young Stonechat. There were also four young Yellow Wagtails along the lane.

It’s been a productive week on the dragonfly front too
adding Southern Hawker, Common Darter…

Common Blue Damselfly and this ovipositing Emperor to the
year list ….

" Men that undertake only one district are much more likely to advance natural knowledge than those that grasp at more than they can possibly be acquainted with ; every kingdom, every province, should have its own monographer."Gilbert White — The Natural History of Selborne.This blog covers the birds and other wildlife in the parish of Ainderby Steeple, North Yorkshire.